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If you attended ISU Extension Annual Conference and left with the awareness and feeling that change is the order of business, you must have been paying attention. Change, internally and externally, is all around us. Our clientele is changing. The environment we work in is changing. The Extension structure and culture is changing. So I guess I need to get with it and adapt or adjust to these changes as well. I realize I need to change some aspects of how I do my work. But, I’m not certain how to do make these changes. How do I get started?

For many an immediate reaction to all these changes is to become cynical. How often do you hear people say something like; “I’ve heard all this before” or “been there, done that?” Approaching change with cynicism is not uncommon. In America, cynicism has almost become the way to address any change effort. Keep in mind the old saying, “behind every cynic stands a frustrated idealist.”

So how do we avoid becoming a full blown, life-long cynic? How do we begin to make the changes needed? How do we “walk the talk?”

To begin, you might start by asking yourself a few reflective questions;

Am I experiencing more difficulty or discomfort or stress performing my job?

Am I working harder or more and enjoying it less?

Are people requesting my product more or less?

Are my clients becoming older or younger?

Do my clients want a new product or the current product delivered differently?

Are my relationships with co-workers or clients being affected?

Are expectations of me by my superiors or clients affecting my job satisfaction?

If, after reflecting on these questions, you decide you can continue to work the same way you have for the last 10-15 years, perhaps you don’t need to read further. You probably are well into your retirement planning anyway.

If, on the other hand, you decide some change is probably needed, you are well on your way to managing personal change. The key to the next step is to clarify for yourself where you need to move to. What does the future need to look like? What is your vision of the way you need to work? What do you see that will be in place 3-5 years from now? What behaviors need to be different? What skills are needed to effectively work in this new future?

Now that you have a picture of where you are headed, the next step is to obtain the knowledge and skills needed to make this vision reality. This may involve specific face-to-face educational experiences or the interaction with information only or a combination of both. Whatever the mechanism for making the change happen, you need to create an opportunity for feedback on your attempts at making the change and the impact on your behavior. Find someone who will be willing to work with you in this “coaching” role. However, be careful that this “coach” is not just someone who will only reinforce your behavior regardless of what the behavior is. Identify someone who will give you honest feedback and in a kind and caring manner.

When you have effectively changed your behavior, celebrate the accomplishment by doing something fun and rewarding for successfully moving forward.

Keep in mind, making personal behavior change is not easy. If it were easy, we would all make changes instantaneously and not need a process. We need to “work” at making a personal change. However, by being successful in the change process, you will experience staying in touch with the work world and your clientele. It keeps you relevant and needed. It also makes you better able to make the next needed change.

Until next time, identify a needed change and have fun making it a reality.

Someone once told me that you can’t really build trust. Instead trust develops as the result of working with others on a project. Certainly trust can be developed and/or enhanced through working with others. However, trust can also be depleted or destroyed by working with others. It is not just the experience of working with others that automatically leads to trust. It must be a conscious effort to build trust while working with others.

This is where I believe the Mutual Learning Model can impact the trust level within groups. By being intentional and creating the conditions for mutual learning trust can be developed. Just working together is not enough to build trust. We must also pay attention to how individuals work together. It starts with the understanding that beliefs and values are critical to mutual learning and the development of trust.

To create the conditions for mutual learning and the development of trust, a facilitative leader needs to share and practice the core values, principles, and ground rules that make up the framework of the “Mutual Learning Model.” It is also more than just sharing. It is necessary to have a dialogue with others about these values, principles, and ground rules. By doing so we are causing individuals to explore what they mean, to examine how they work, and to identify the barriers that prevent us from using them.

With this kind of dialogue groups can begin to explore and identify how the individuals will be interacting and relating to one another. With this set of operating guidelines, the work group becomes intentional about the way it plans to carry out the task. By being intentional and holding each other accountable for these values, principles, and ground rules, individuals begin to live out the “Mutual Learning Model.” Individual members of the group can now become transparent and make free and informed choices. When individuals make free and informed choices from the information that in relevant and available, he or she is more likely to become more committed to the task or cause. When individuals are more committed they have more trust in the group and the outcome.

So, if creating more trust within the group or organization is needed, then the “Mutual Learning Model” as described by Roger Schwarz in his book, The Skilled Facilitator, can provide a great framework of how to build that trust. The core values, the principles, and the ground rules can provide the descriptions of how to behave within the group. Discussing and practicing the values, principles, and rules will result in a learning environment that will develop or enhance the trust desired for better group effectiveness.

And what are those values, principles, and rules?

The skilled facilitator approach is based on the following four core values:

Valid information- all relevant information is shared

Free and informed choice- people define their own objectives and methods for achieving them, there is no coercion or manipulation

Internal commitment- people feel personally responsible for their choices, there is personal accountability

Compassion- people are concerned and caring about others and suspend judgment

The skilled facilitator approach offers the following principles to guide behavior:

Being Transparent- sharing reasoning and intentions (share what you are thinking and feeling)

Being Curious- genuinely interested in what others are saying and understanding how they are thinking

Thinking and acting systemically- being accountable for the system as a whole and not just your part

Increasing accountability and ownership without being dependent- build the capacity of others to manage their own relationships

Courage- take risks

The skilled facilitator approach provides the following ground rules for interacting with others:

Test assumptions and inferences

Share all relevant information

Use specific examples and agree on what important words mean

Explain your reasoning and intent

Focus on interests, not positions

Combine advocacy with inquiry

Jointly design next steps and ways to test disagreements

Discuss undiscussable issues

Use a decision-making rule that generates the degree of commitment needed

Until next time reflect upon these values, principles, and ground rules. Discuss them with others. And experiment to see how they help with trust. Whether in a group decision making effort or in a one-on-one conversation, you may find the trust level enhanced by practicing the “Mutual Learning Model.”